Yes, I just heard this one. Specifically, we were talking about people with large families (think the Duggars) and over-population, and the person said this:

Quote:

I would have the presence of mind to explain that the entire population of the world could fit into the state of Texas with about 1000 square feet per person, leaving the entire rest of the world empty.

The entire population of the world is what, almost 7 billion? And the square footage of Texas is what? It is 268,581 square miles(land and water), so if we each had exactly 1,000 square feet (the size of my home, just for comparison--it's actually 1800 sqft, so I'd be missing a room), would we really be able to fit that many homes in Texas?

The entire population of the world is what, almost 7 billion? And the square footage of Texas is what? It is 268,581 square miles(land and water), so if we each had exactly 1,000 square feet (the size of my home, just for comparison--it's actually 1800 sqft, so I'd be missing a room), would we really be able to fit that many homes in Texas?

I don't know anything about the claim, but I will do the math for you. Using the square milage you gave for Texas: 1 square mile = 5280 x 5280 square feet = 27,878,400 square feet. So 268,581 square miles = 7,487,608,550,400. For simplicity say 7.5 x 10^12. That divided by 7 x 10^9 is indeed over 1000 square feet per person. So if we made one giant one-story compound over Texas, land, water, and all, we would each get a 1,000 square foot unit.

I don't know anything about the claim, but I will do the math for you. Using the square milage you gave for Texas: 1 square mile = 5280 x 5280 square feet = 27,878,400 square feet. So 268,581 square miles = 7,487,608,550,400. For simplicity say 7.5 x 10^12. That divided by 7 x 10^9 is indeed over 1000 square feet per person. So if we made one giant one-story compound over Texas, land, water, and all, we would each get a 1,000 square foot unit.

OK. And?

Oh good, I did do my math correctly (I came up with 7.5 as well)...

And "Okay, and?" was my question to her as well. 1--I wanted to make sure the math was correct, but 2--as others have pointed out, the point isn't about numbers, but about resources.

I don't know anything about the claim, but I will do the math for you. Using the square milage you gave for Texas: 1 square mile = 5280 x 5280 square feet = 27,878,400 square feet. So 268,581 square miles = 7,487,608,550,400. For simplicity say 7.5 x 10^12. That divided by 7 x 10^9 is indeed over 1000 square feet per person. So if we made one giant one-story compound over Texas, land, water, and all, we would each get a 1,000 square foot unit.

Like we'd want all of y'all anyway. There's a reason we're so spread out here. We can't along with each other, much less the rest of the world. It's a worse idea than anything any Big Brother producer ever came up with.

In 1984, it was proven by the economist Thomas Sowell that the entire world population (4.4 billion at the time) could live comfortably in the state of Texas. He wrote “Every human being on the face of the Earth could be housed in the state of Texas in one-story, single-family homes, each with a front and a back yard. A family of four would thus have 6,800 square feet- about the size of the typical middle-class American home with front and backyards.”(Carter 99) According to more recent research on the topic, all of the world’s 1997 population (5.84 billion) could fit on the small Island of Bali in Indonesia.(Stiefel 98)

Like we'd want all of y'all anyway. There's a reason we're so spread out here. We can't along with each other, much less the rest of the world. It's a worse idea than anything any Big Brother producer ever came up with.

Yeah, Survivor keeps sending people to tropical islands and lush forests and stuff - how about "Survivor/Laredo"?

It does give you a little better sense of just how BIG Texas is. Coming from the northeast, we just don't make states that big around here. Even Pennsylvania (where I'm from) and New York are small by comparison, and those are the bigwig in the northeast. And there's a LOT of upstate New York.

In 1984, it was proven by the economist Thomas Sowell that the entire world population (4.4 billion at the time) could live comfortably in the state of Texas.

Proven? Hardly. It was "proven" that everyone would fit, it was certainly not proven that they "could live comfortably".

Where is the space needed for roads/rails so that food can be delivered? Where is the space to deal with all the excrement that a couple billion people will generate? Where are all the other support services required (e.g., hospitals, stores, transportation, jobs ...)?

That site would be almost funny if it wasn't so serious.

Water isn't a problem because someone will come up with a cheap way to purify salt water (not likely, the thermodynamics make it impossible). And, that still leaves huge parts of the world that don't have fresh or salt water.

Some other gems;
"I do not foresee a lack of clean oxygen as a problem for future generations. I think rapidly advancing technology will continually make our means of producing energy cleaner, and mile high skyscrapers will reduce the need for travel which will mean less pollution. So the quality of air will probably get better instead of worse." Lack of clean oxygen is already a significant problem, acid rain, increased incidence of respiratory diseases, pollution caused decreases in life span etc. The air has been getting cleaner in some places over the last couple decades, but in other places air quality has decreased tremendously.

"Food could be a problem for such a large population, but currently the United States produces enough food to feed the entire world." Perhaps, but how do you get that food transported (let alone paid for)? Does the world population really want to live on nothing but feed corn and soy beans? Which constitutes what, ~80%?, of the crops raised in the US.

"One hundred thousand people living comfortably in one building." Apparently the author has a different definition of "comfortable" than I do. Besides, piling people up vertically really doesn't accomplish all that much since people aren't what takes up the space. It is the infrastructure that keeps those people alive that takes up space (and resources).

"One hundred thousand people living comfortably in one building." Apparently the author has a different definition of "comfortable" than I do. Besides, piling people up vertically really doesn't accomplish all that much since people aren't what takes up the space. It is the infrastructure that keeps those people alive that takes up space (and resources).
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I suppose this could pave the way for my Jetsons dream to come true? Maybe? Can I at least have the flying car then?

It's a worse idea than anything any Big Brother producer ever came up with.

But if you did it as Big brother thing you could show it to all the people in... in..., er, um ... aha! inside the total population compound and then they could watch themselves watching themselves watch themselves in some sort of post-modern, surreal, worm ouriborous programming frenzy.